The present invention relates to a power supply system for the continuous transit system by manet (hereinafter referred to as a CTM) in which the magnets are disposed on the lower part of a certain number of cars, the cars comprising a train, and energized regularly to be adhered to magnetic belts of a plurality of magnetic belt conveyor units arranged at certain intervals along a running track where the trains are successively drawn and run over.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,197,934, 4,289,227 and 4,278,164 concerning the CTM system and assigned to the same assignee constitute the background of the present invention.
In this type of conventional power supply system for the CTM, there are provided a certain number of block sections for a following train to prevent collisions with a preceding train. Furthermore the power is supplied in the following manner. A trolley wire for supplying power to the trains is divided into a definite number of insulated sections of a length corresponding to a predetermined block section and the current flowing into each insulated section of the trolley wire is detected. When the detected current exceeds a predetermined load current Io, that is defined for a train to be in the corresponding insulated section, and even if the train is not being moved, the magnetic belt conveyor unit group, set in the block section which corresponds to the insulated section immediately following the train occupied insulated section, is braked to stop a train defined to be in this following section. Thus, when the following train enters into this section, due to the magnetic belt conveyor unit group of the section being at rest, the following train is stopped and collision is prevented with the preceding train.
Since the conventional, power supply system provides a block section as described above, if, for example, any one of the branch lines interconnecting the insulated sections and the feeder line becomes faulty, no current flows to the faulty branch line with the result that even if a train is present in the faulty section no current flows to the corresponding section of the trolley wire. This invites the same result as obtained when there is no train and therefore the associated magnetic belt conveyor unit group is caused to operate continuously. In this condition, if the following train enters this section, there is the danger of it colliding with the preceding train from behind. The same result occurs when the power supply from the supply circuits is interrupted, for example.
The disadvantages of the conventional CTM power supply system such as failures of the current supply circuits are not compensated for sufficiently by safe compositions.